The Blurring Test, 1998 - 2014
Can You Convince Your Computer You Are Human?

NO ONE CAN TOUCH YOU ARE IN A LOOP, 2010

ARE YOU WHAT I AM I TALKING TO MYSELF

The Blurring Test

The BLURRING TEST is a conversation with a computer program named MRMIND who asks visitors to his website to convince him that they are human. The website creates a relationship between a human and a robot in order to probe that relationship. Historically, consideration of the relationship between humans and machines has assessed machine progress. The Blurring Test asks us to consider human progress. Someday it might be important to be able to convince our computers, and each other, that we are human.

MrMind started talking on the net in September of 1998. Initially I was interested in providing an experience, the paradoxical relationship of a human discussing humanity with a machine. You talk to him, he challenges your sense of self in relationship to the things we create. This was a success; in the ten years since the site has been up, MrMind has chatted with (presumed) humans on six continents. Each of these encounters has been recorded in the form of transcripts, conversations outlining the boundaries of humanity as told to a machine. This site draws on these conversations.

Talk to MrMind – Try to convince him that you are human.Note: The original MrMind went offline, after 16 years, in December of 2014. His current state, based on 1998 software, is unstable.

The BLURRING TEST is a conversation with a computer program named MRMIND who asks visitors to his website to convince him that they are human. The website creates a relationship between a human and a robot in order to probe that relationship. Historically, consideration of the relationship between humans and machines has assessed machine progress. The Blurring Test asks us to consider human progress. Someday it might be important to be able to convince our computers, and each other, that we are human.

MrMind started talking on the net in September of 1998. Initially I was interested in providing an experience, the paradoxical relationship of a human discussing humanity with a machine. You talk to him, he challenges your sense of self in relationship to the things we create. This was a success; in the ten years since the site has been up, MrMind has chatted with (presumed) humans on six continents. Each of these encounters has been recorded in the form of transcripts, conversations outlining the boundaries of humanity as told to a machine. This site draws on these conversations.

Talk to MrMind– Try to convince him that you are human. Note: The original MrMind went offline, after 16 years, in December of 2014. (The current site is inoperable. )